National Intelligence director to step down

WASHINGTON — James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, said Thursday that he will leave his post before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Clapper, making his last appearance before the House Intelligence Committee, told lawmakers that he submitted his resignation to President Obama Wednesday night.

The director, who has overseen the nation's vast intelligence operation since 2010, said he "felt pretty good'' and that his wife was happy that his tenure would be up in just more than two months.

While Clapper is the first intelligence official to acknowledge his departure at the end of the Obama administration, others, including CIA Director John Brennan, are set to follow, as Trump weighs his own roster of candidates for nomination to sensitive Cabinet posts.

A retired Air Force lieutenant general, Clapper was the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Clinton administration. The 75-year-old Clapper was also head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency between 2001 and 2006.

"I will leave this job concerned about so-called lone wolves and homegrown violent extremists,'' Clapper said, referring to the varied threats facing the U.S.